Danny Johnson has been seeing a bald eagle off and on in the vicinity of his orchard and winery near Thaxton for three years now. Recently a bald eagle has shown up at Hickory Hill Winery in Moneta. Johnson wonders if it’s the same eagle and, if it is, maybe it could be dubbed the Bedford Wine Trail Eagle. The wine trail is a list of county wineries and the Welcome Center promotes this tour of the county’s wineries to visitors.

The Blue Ridge Garden Club held its annual fundraiser on April 29, the day of Britain’s royal wedding. That became the theme of the club’s plant sale and lunch. Garden club members poured tea and decorations included royal brides and grooms, a custom mock-up of a wedding cake and a poster with the lineage of Britain’s royal family.

onvicted of rape in connection with charges that date back to 2005. He will have to serve more than 17 years of a 57 year, seven month sentence.

Michael Wayne Porterfield, 38, pleaded no contest May 3 to the rape charge, which stems from him having sexual intercourse with a 12-year-old girl in the Goodview area in 2005. He was arrested on the charges last July after the girl, now a teenager, shared what had happened with a friend.

The Bedford County Planning Commission unanimously turned down, Monday night, a request from AT&T to build a 160-foot cell tower on a property on Perrowville Road.

The proposed location is in a wooded area at the rear of a commercial site, but there is dense residential development nearby. The people living in these adjoining neighborhoods spoke out against the proposal at a public hearing.

As Melissa Tomlin stood by her two girls, Mazie, 7, and Abby, 5, she was clear about the reason she wears her seatbelt.

“What if I hadn’t had my seatbelt on. What if it had killed me; what would my kids do?” she said of a recent accident.
That discipline, however, kept her from being seriously hurt or even killed during an accident last month in Bedford.

In an effort to provide tax relief for small businesses, Bedford County has eliminated its Merchant’s Capital tax. That tax requires that businesses calculate their inventories on January 1, and pay a certain percentage of tax on that.

District 1 Supervisor Dale Wheeler, who made the motion last month to eliminate this tax, said the tax put retailers in a dilemma as the end of the year approached. If they didn’t buy enough, they could run out of inventory. If they bought too much, they got taxed.

As a child of 10, he was removed from his home because of abuse and placed in a group home. While at that group home, Jones said he was sexually molested for four years by the staff.
“It caused a litany of problems in my life,” Jones states of the abuse.
That’s why he has made an effort to reach out to help youth and support causes that seek to protect them from predators.